UK tabloid had network of corrupt officials

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UK tabloid had network of corrupt officials

LONDON: Journalists at Britain's best-selling tabloid The Sun had a network of corrupted officials who provided them with stories in return for cash payments, a top police officer said Monday.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers of Scotland Yard told an official inquiry there was a culture at the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper of paying police as well as the military, health workers, government and prison staff.

Since November, detectives have arrested 10 current or former journalists from The Sun over illegal payments, as well as a serving police officer, a Ministry of Defence worker and an army officer.

But Murdoch, who shut down the tabloid's sister paper the News of the World over a phone-hacking scandal last year, has pledged his support for the title, launching a Sunday version of The Sun at the weekend.

"There appears to have been a culture at The Sun of illegal payments and systems have been created to facilitate those payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money," Akers said.

She said a trawl of millions of emails from News International, the owner of The Sun and the News of the World, indicated that some public officials were paid huge amounts and even kept on retainer.

The authority level for these type of payments was made at a very senior level at The Sun and they were openly referred to at the paper, she said.

Akers was giving evidence at the Leveson inquiry, which is examining the practices of the British press in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that prompted Murdoch to shut the News of the World.

Monday's hearings into the sometimes cosy relationship between newspapers and police begin the second phase of the inquiry which earlier this month finished hearing evidence about the relationship between the press and the public.

Akers said the recent Sun arrests involved the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by a journalist.

"Some of the initial emails reveal upon analysis that multiple payments have been made to individuals amounting to thousands of pounds," she said.

"In one case, over a period of several years, this amounts to in excess of £80,000. There is also mention in some emails of public officials being placed on retainers.

"One of the arrested journalists has over several years received over £150,000 in cash to pay his sources, a number of whom were public officials."

She added that police were mindful of the right that journalists had to protect their sources when pursuing stories in the public interest.

But she said: "The vast majority of the disclosures that have been made have led to stories which I would describe as salacious gossip rather than anything that could be remotely regarded as in the public interest."

Former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks admitted to law-makers in 2003 that "we have paid the police for information in the past", but last year she insisted she had never personally sanctioned any such a payment.

Brooks, who went on to be chief executive of News International, was arrested last year by police investigating phone hacking and bribery.

She had resigned shortly before her arrest, but denies any wrongdoing.

Akers -- "Emails indicated that some public officials were paid huge moments and even kept on retainer."

LONDON: Journalists at Britain's best-selling tabloid The Sun had a network of corrupted officials who provided them with stories in return for cash payments, a top police officer said Monday.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers of Scotland Yard told an official inquiry there was a culture at the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper of paying police as well as the military, health workers, government and prison staff.

Since November, detectives have arrested 10 current or former journalists from The Sun over illegal payments, as well as a serving police officer, a Ministry of Defence worker and an army officer.

But Murdoch, who shut down the tabloid's sister paper the News of the World over a phone-hacking scandal last year, has pledged his support for the title, launching a Sunday version of The Sun at the weekend.

"There appears to have been a culture at The Sun of illegal payments and systems have been created to facilitate those payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money," Akers said.

She said a trawl of millions of emails from News International, the owner of The Sun and the News of the World, indicated that some public officials were paid huge amounts and even kept on retainer.

The authority level for these type of payments was made at a very senior level at The Sun and they were openly referred to at the paper, she said.

Akers was giving evidence at the Leveson inquiry, which is examining the practices of the British press in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that prompted Murdoch to shut the News of the World.

Monday's hearings into the sometimes cosy relationship between newspapers and police begin the second phase of the inquiry which earlier this month finished hearing evidence about the relationship between the press and the public.

Akers said the recent Sun arrests involved the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by a journalist.

"Some of the initial emails reveal upon analysis that multiple payments have been made to individuals amounting to thousands of pounds," she said.

"In one case, over a period of several years, this amounts to in excess of £80,000. There is also mention in some emails of public officials being placed on retainers.

"One of the arrested journalists has over several years received over £150,000 in cash to pay his sources, a number of whom were public officials."

She added that police were mindful of the right that journalists had to protect their sources when pursuing stories in the public interest.

But she said: "The vast majority of the disclosures that have been made have led to stories which I would describe as salacious gossip rather than anything that could be remotely regarded as in the public interest."

Former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks admitted to law-makers in 2003 that "we have paid the police for information in the past", but last year she insisted she had never personally sanctioned any such a payment.

Brooks, who went on to be chief executive of News International, was arrested last year by police investigating phone hacking and bribery.

She had resigned shortly before her arrest, but denies any wrongdoing.